Blog

Homelessness Reaches Record High in Bay Area County

Santa Clara County’s total homeless population rose by 8.2 percent to a record high of 10,711 people, according to early results from the county’s latest point-in-time count.

The count used data taken in one night in January 2025, and it serves as the main data source to determine federal funding and homelessness estimates within the county.

The total number of people experiencing homelessness rose from 9,903 in 2023 to more than 10,000 now, consistent with expert observations that “more people are entering homelessness than exiting homelessness in the region,” the report states.

Among the homeless population, the number of sheltered individuals increased by 30 percent, which the county attributes to better use of available shelter beds and more shelter capacity overall.

“Even as we face extraordinary challenges and threats to critical federal and state funding for safety-net services, the County continues to make significant investments in both shelter capacity and permanent housing to combat homelessness in our community,” County Executive James R. Williams stated in a statement.

The investments include approximately $446 million in funding to address homelessness in the 2024–2025 fiscal year. With this funding, the county was able to move more than 8,000 homeless individuals into housing from 2023 to 2025.

Keep reading

British man charged over mock Disneyland wedding to child had been investigated by BBC

The British paedophile charged in connection with organising a “mock wedding” to a child in Disneyland Paris is Jacky Jhaj, who was found guilty of sexual activity with two 15-year-olds in 2016, the BBC understands.

Jhaj, 39, has been charged in connection with organising the fake ceremony on Saturday, in which a nine-year-old Ukrainian girl was due to feature as his bride.

He was arrested when police were called on Saturday morning by an actor who said he had been hired by Jhaj to play the father of the bride.

The BBC has previously investigated how Jhaj was able to hire hundreds of children to act as his fawning fans at a fake film premiere in London’s Leicester Square in 2023.

Some of the children, who had been hired from casting agencies, were as young as six.

Teenage girls told the BBC that they had been asked to scream for him and try to touch him, without being told his real identity by the agencies.

Then in June last year, Jhaj was seen giving gifts to children outside dance auditions for another production – he was recognised by a parent who had seen the BBC article.

Two months later, and following the BBC’s further investigation, Jhaj was filmed posing naked in front of a mocked-up BBC News lorry in London which had been set on fire.

For the mock wedding at Disneyland Paris, which was to be filmed by Jhaj’s team, around 100 French extras had been recruited to take part.

The BBC understands that he appeared in front of a judge in Meaux, north-east of Paris, on Monday and was charged with fraud, breach of trust, money laundering, and identity theft and placed in pretrial detention.

Preliminary findings also stated that he had allegedly been “made-up professionally so that his face appeared totally different from his own”, according to the French prosecutor.

Keep reading

Florida Invokes Emergency Powers to Build ‘Alligator Alcatraz’

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis invoked emergency powers on June 24 to clear the way for Alligator Alcatraz, a new illegal immigration detention center deep in the Everglades.

The plans for another complex to hold illegal immigrants apprehended by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE)—and awaiting processing and deportation—were drafted and submitted by the Florida Division of Emergency Management (FDEM) to the Department of Homeland Security and received Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem’s approval on June 23.

“Under President [Donald] Trump’s leadership, we are working at turbo speed to deliver cost-effective and innovative ways to deliver on the American people’s mandate for mass deportations of criminal illegal aliens,” Noem said on X.

“We will expand facilities and bed space in just days, thanks to our partnership with Florida.”

She said the facilities would be largely funded by FEMA’s Shelter and Services program, which she noted was used by former President Joe Biden’s administration to house illegal immigrants.

The site chosen was the Dade-Collier Training and Transition Airport.

Keep reading

Democrat busted for shoplifting at Target self-checkout line — and uses ailing granny as an excuse

A Democratic state representative from Connecticut busted for shoplifting after failing to scan items at a Target self-checkout offered a litany of excuses, including that he was “in a rush to bring items to my grandmother in the hospital.”

State Rep. Raghib Allie-Brennan was arrested Monday night at a Target store in Bethel, about 60 miles southwest of Hartford, after authorities reviewed security footage allegedly showing he neglected to scan two of his items, totaling $26.69 in value.

He was detained by loss prevention personnel, who later told cops they recognized the four-term lawmaker from “previous unreported larcenies,” CT Mirror reported, citing a Bethel Police arrest summary.

Allie-Brennan, 33, who was first elected in 2018, acknowledged the incident on his Facebook page Tuesday in an excuse-laden post.

“During a recent visit to the Bethel Target, two items in my armload of others were not scanned. I was in a rush to bring items to my grandmother in the hospital, the store didn’t have bags, and I was juggling multiple purchases,” he wrote.

Keep reading

Mike Lee’s proposed public lands sale blocked by Senate parliamentarian

A proposal by Utah Sen. Mike Lee, a Republican, to sell millions of acres of public lands to private housing developers hit the skids late Monday when the Senate parliamentarian ruled it couldn’t be included in President Trump’s One Big, Beautiful Bill.

Why it matters: Lee’s plan would have ordered federal land managers to sell up to about 3.3 million acres of land for housing and infrastructure.

Driving the news: The Senate parliamentarian decided Monday night that Lee’s proposal violated rules limiting “extraneous” measures that can be added during budget reconciliation.

  • To overcome the ruling, Lee’s plan would require a 60-vote majority.

Catch up quick: Lee’s proposed land sale prompted widespread backlash, including from some Republicans.

  • Lee said the land sales would make room for more housing in western states — but the policy language didn’t require homes built on the land to meet any standard for affordability.

The intrigue: Shortly before the parliamentarian’s ruling, Lee posted to X that he planned to make major revisions to the proposal, making national forest land ineligible for sale and “significantly” reducing other lands that would be available.

Keep reading

Suspect confesses to crucifying pastor in Arizona home – and had others on hit list

In a chilling jailhouse interview, the man accused of a gruesome, religiously motivated murder of a beloved pastor in Arizona said he had committed the crime and revealed he had a broader hit list of religious leaders he intended to kill during his murderous rampage.

Adam Christopher Sheafe, 51, told True Crime Arizona Monday that he crucified 76-year-old Pastor William Schonemann, known in the community as “Pastor Bill,” inside his New River home in April.

Sheafe said the attack was part of what he claimed was a divine mission to punish religious leaders who, in his view, were misleading followers.

“I drove from there (Phoenix) to Bill’s house, like two in the morning on a Sunday night, and I executed him,” Sheafe told the correspondent Briana Whitney, who sat across the table from him.

Schonemann was found dead in his bed, covered in blood, on April 28 during a welfare check.

During the interview, Sheafe spoke about the disturbing scene, which included details about a crown of thorns, which he said he made from what he found in the woods, and placed on Schonemann’s head.

“Because what I’m saying is, what you’re preaching is not what God said,” Sheafe explained. “It’s the opposite of what God said.”

Sheafe revealed that Schonemann was not his only target. Prior to the murder, he said he had followed a priest home after Easter services in Phoenix with the intent to kill him — the first of 14 intended “executions” across the country.

“Starting in Arizona, where I was born,” Sheafe said. “Where it starts is where it ends, like the Garden of Eden.”

But he claimed to have stopped that first attempt when two women unexpectedly entered the priest’s garage.

“I’m not interested in executing anyone other than the pastors or the shepherds leading the flock astray,” he said.

After killing Schonemann, Sheafe said he traveled to Sedona, where he planned to murder two more religious leaders. He would later be identified as the suspect in a burglary which led to a high-speed chase with Sedona police.

Keep reading

US Navy Used Munitions at ‘Alarming Rate’ To Intercept Iranian Missiles Fired at Israel

A senior US military official told Congress on Tuesday that the US Navy used munitions at an “alarming rate” while defending Israel from Iranian missiles during the 12-day war that Israel started with massive strikes on Iran.

Adm. James Kilby, the acting chief of naval operations, was asked during a Senate Appropriations Committee hearing whether the US Navy had enough SM-3 interceptors, an advanced missile that can reach space and can cost between $10 million and $30 million for a single missile.

“We do, sir, but we are, to your point, using them at an alarming rate,” Kilby told Sen. Brian Schatz (D-HI), who said the US was using a large number of munitions to defend Israel.

Kilby continued, “As you know, those are missiles procured by the Missile Defense Agency and then delivered to the Navy for our use. And we are using them quite effectively in the defense of Israel.”

It’s unclear how many SM-3 missiles the US Navy fired to defend Israel during the 12 days of war. The munitions were also used last year when Iran fired missiles and drones at Israel in April 2024 in response to the Israeli bombing of its consulate in Damascus and in October when Iran launched another attack over Israel’s assassination of Hamas’s political chief, Ismail Haniyeh, when he was in Tehran.

The US also expended a lot of munitions during its bombing campaigns against the Houthis in Yemen. President Trump’s airstrikes in Yemen, which lasted from March 15 to May 6, were particularly violent and killed more than 200 civilians. Despite the heavy attacks, the Houthis, officially known as Ansar Allah, were able to keep up attacks on US warships, and Trump eventually gave up trying to stop them from firing at Israel.

Keep reading

Just one single dose of ‘magic mushrooms’ could relieve depression for 5 years, researchers find

Psilocybin, the main psychoactive ingredient in magic mushrooms, could alleviate depression for at least five years after just one dose, according to a new study.

The research, presented June 18 at the Psychedelic Science 2025 conference in Denver, followed up with patients who had been diagnosed with clinical depression — also known as major depressive disorder (MDD) — and had participated in a previous psilocybin treatment study in 2020.

“Most people who participated in our trial reported improvements in depression symptom intensity or in the ways in which they experienced depression in their life, lasting up to five years after the trial,” study co-author Alan Davis, director of the Center for Psychedelic Drug Research and Education at The Ohio State University, told Fox News Digital.

Doug Drysdale, CEO of the Canadian pharmaceutical company Cybin in Toronto, Ontario, told Fox News Digital that the outcome speaks to the “exciting” potential of psilocybin and other psychedelic-based treatments in treating MDD and other mental health conditions.

“The results of the study are certainly very encouraging,” said Drysdale, who was not involved in the study.

Earlier studies pointed toward the possibility of psilocybin as a potential antidepressant, prompting researchers to conduct the first-ever randomized clinical trial.

Keep reading

NATO chief calls Trump ‘Daddy’ after president drops F-bomb over Iran-Israel strikes

NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte on Wednesday called President Trump “Daddy” after the commander-in-chief furiously dropped the F-bomb when he was ripping into Iran and Israel for temporarily breaking a cease-fire deal.

Rutte made the remark as Trump was comparing the fighting between Israel and Iran to children scrapping in a schoolyard — a day after the prez launched a blistering attack on both countries over the ongoing barrage of missiles being fired at each other.

“They’ve had a big fight, like two kids in a schoolyard. You know, they fight like hell, you can’t stop them. Let them fight for about 2, 3 minutes, then it’s easy to stop them,” Trump said as the pair gave a joint press conference ahead of the NATO summit at The Hague.

Rutte laughed and quickly added: “Daddy has to sometimes use strong language to get it stopped.”

Elsewhere, the NATO boss gushed that Trump was a “good friend” and praised the prez for making the summit a success by “finally” getting Europe to boost military spending.

“When it comes to Iran, the fact that he took this decisive action, very targeted, to make sure that Iran would not be able to get his hands on a nuclear capability — I think he deserves all the praise,” he said.

Keep reading

Claims Swirl Over Extent Of Damage From Attacks On Iranian Nuclear Facilities

There are new claims saying Iran’s nuclear program was “badly damaged” in attacks by Israel and the U.S. These differ from earlier published reports that the strikes had a limited effect, highlighting the precarious nature of parsing through preliminary assessments.

Wednesday afternoon, CIA John Radcliffe said that his agency “can confirm that a body of credible intelligence indicates Iran’s Nuclear Program has been severely damaged by the recent, targeted strikes,” according to a public statement. “This includes new intelligence from a historically reliable and accurate source/method that several key Iranian nuclear facilities were destroyed and would have to be rebuilt over the course of years. CIA continues to collect additional reliably sourced information to keep appropriate decision-makers and oversight bodies fully informed. When possible, we will also provide updates and information to the American public, given the national importance of this matter and in every attempt to provide transparency.”

Radcliffe’s analysis follows statements from Israeli intelligence officials on Wednesday said that U.S. and Israeli strikes on Iran’s nuclear facilities have caused “very significant” and “long-term damage,” according to Israeli media reports. Iran also confirmed its sights were “badly damaged.” Those assessments are in line with what U.S. President Donald Trump has said. At the same time, they differ significantly from U.S. media reports citing a now-confirmed preliminary Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA) report stating that Operation Midnight Hammer, the U.S. attack on Fordow, Isfahan and Natanz, had limited results. Experts in the non-proliferation community are also giving their takes on the state of Iran’s nuclear program, some of which are conflicting and even Iran has chimed in.

Clearly this issue is highly politicized at this point and there are many agendas at play when it comes to propagating specific narratives surrounding it. These range from political motivations to state-sponsored disinformation. Unless there are trusted moles with actual access to these sites — or who have direct knowledge from those who do — within the Iranian government, and only if Iran has even gained access into critical areas themselves, conclusions can only be made in a preliminary fashion based on very limited information. Even intercepted intelligence can be falsified in order to throw foreign assessments off. Intelligence reports, as a practice, also range in confidence, and it’s unlikely the confidence is extremely high this soon after the attack. So maybe the B-2’s didn’t have the desired effect and maybe they destroyed huge amounts of critical nuclear infrastructure and materials. It’s still not very clear and conclusions in key intelligence products can change drastically based on new information.

Regardless, here is the state of play of the battle damage assessment situation as it sat prior to the CIA report. You can also catch up with our past reporting about the Israel-Iran conflict here.

Keep reading